


A Second Try

by petrichxr



Series: Mutual Hesitation & Silence [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-15
Packaged: 2018-05-01 16:46:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5213342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petrichxr/pseuds/petrichxr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Sort of a companion piece to sirimiri's <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/4276323">Wilted.</a>. Go check that out if you want to understand this one. Though this can be read separately.</p>
    </blockquote>





	A Second Try

**Author's Note:**

> Sort of a companion piece to sirimiri's [Wilted.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4276323). Go check that out if you want to understand this one. Though this can be read separately.

He’d left her a flower again.

Apparently he hadn’t gotten the memo when the last one went flying out the window. She scoffs at it but pauses to look at it. It wasn’t wilted like the last. Instead it was vibrant and full of life. Something odd to see now-a-days. At least for the human populace.

Crystal hues shift from the flower by her hand to the window beside her. She’d seen plenty of flowers like this before. Growing wild and free. A million different colors splashed across the landscape. She’d found comfort in lying in flower fields in her village on her free days. Ones where her father wasn’t pushing her.

As her mind drifts she catches sight of him outside the window. He’s standing beside his sister. The same one that had caused this whole flower mess to start. She scowls and looks away. Gaze directed back at the flower beside her. Absently she reaches out and brushes her fingers against the petals. They’re soft. Surprisingly so. Her eyes widen slightly before settling back into their usual narrowed state.

Annie picks it up, twirling the delicate thing between her fingers.

It’s odd how during such a short time she’d come to appreciate the little things like this. A flower. The sunshine. Even the rain. It was stuff she’d grown used to in her home. Things that were never sparse or missing completely. Yet within these walls that humanity had built they were strange. The sun no longer settled on the horizon before slowly rising for her. No instead she could see the slight change in the sky instead as it rose high. Didn’t catch a glimpse until midday when it in the directly above. Only to have it disappear hours later.

How did the humans deal with it? Did they really not know what they were missing?

Her scowl appears again as she stares at the flower. Despite herself she looks back out the window, eyes glancing around for him. A few paces from where he’d been, Shulz now stood talking to Shadis. Absently she wonders what on earth he could be talking to their superior about. She catches herself though. Stuff like that wasn’t for people like her. For monsters like her. Curiosity about these humans was something they couldn’t afford. Being close to them would ruin the plans. Reiner was already ignoring those rules. She had to make sure she distanced herself to make up for his mistakes.

During her thoughts he’d moved and she was merely staring at a blank spot on the training fields. She shakes her head, scowling at herself. Weak. The whole idea of it was ridiculous. She stands; flower still in hand as she moves from the classroom. Her trainee squad was due on the training field for hand-to-hand soon.

She is slow to move through the hall of the building. In no rush to get out to the field. After all, it wasn’t like hand-to-hand was graded. And with aim to join the military police and get within the inner walls, she wasn’t going to expend the energy just to please everyone around her by participating. Her boots scuff against the floor with her movements and it’s then that she spots him again.

He’s walking into the building through the same door that she is going to exit from. He doesn’t seem to have spotted her yet. A few more steps and she’ll be out; he won’t know his pathetic attempt at apologies was still held within her delicate grasp.

That’s when he looks up, eyes training on her. From this distance she doesn’t have to look up quite so far to look at his face. But she does tilt her head upwards slightly in recognition. He watches her with a quirked brow, eyes shifting from her face to the flower in her hands.

Keeping it with her had been a moment of weakness. A moment of odd hope that had blossomed in her at the possibilities of her life had she not been chosen for her path. But things never quite worked as one wanted. Fate was a cruel puppeteer after all.

She brushes past him, purposely brushing her arm against his as she moves past. She feels him stiffen and a ghost of a smile appears. He’d be a fun one to toy with. But she can’t entertain the idea. As she walks out of the building she feels his eyes on her. The hand holding the flower is held out to her side for him to see and without a thought she crushes it in her fist. Dropping it to the ground she continues forward towards the training ground. Hopefully this time he’d get the message.  
Humans were weak. She couldn’t spend the time entertaining the idea of blending in fully. She had a mission to complete. And she’d be damned if she let herself get distracted.


End file.
